I'm moving to the halls of residence near Bangor University on sunday, so I'm pretty nervous about living away from my family for the first time. The halls are catered, so I won't have to worry about doing to much cooking, but does anyone have any much needed tips about it?

I had catered accommodation as well. Not having to cook your own food makes things a lot easier for dyspraxic students, but it's important to remember that there will be days when you miss mealtimes or don't like what is being served in the canteen. For those emergencies, it's important to keep a supply of non-perishable food in your room. Avoid the junk food. I always had a jumbo tub of raisins somewhere about, and I bought loaves of bread regularly so that I could make sandwiches for myself if I missed dinner in hall.

Laundry

You need two big laundry baskets, one for dirty clothes and one for clean. Fix a firm wash day for yourself each week and never deviate from that, otherwise you will find yourself with no clean socks just when you need them the most. Carry both baskets to the laundry room and leave the 'clean' basket in front of your washing machine when you've loaded it. This means that if you forget to return to the machine as soon as your clothes are ready, the next person who comes along won't just dump your things on the floor or on top of the machine. Set a reminder on your watch or your mobile to let you know when you have to collect your clothes.

Timetable

You will probably be given a timetable for lectures and classes, but you will need to make a bigger one to take private study time, personal care tasks, and social events into account. I had two whiteboards in my room, one with a long-term timetable (a list of tasks that had to be done every week) and one with my weekly schedule. If you have a system like this in place from the start, it will make it harder for you to forget things. It would be best to make the timetables with a study skills tutor at your disability support centre. The centre at Cambridge was extremely helpful to me when it came to things like organisational skills, and my tutor there was able to prompt me about things that I would have otherwise forgotten to do.

I am about to go into my third year of Uni (where oh where did the last two years go?!), although I actually live at home so I don't have any personal experience of living away. I think the tips that Vicky gives are very useful though. You're lucky you don't have to cook your own meals (I don't think I could do that either!) but try to keep healthy snacks nearby, as Vicky suggests. I have heard horror stories from living-in students about relying on baked beans on toast for breakfast, lunch and tea for a fortnight... not nice and not very good for your concentration when studying! Try to be organized, set aside days for cleaning your room etc. Let the equality unit know about your difficulties as soon as possible so you can have the necessary arrangements in exams.